Unending Story
by one.twilight.sun
Summary: This is where I'm going to put all my ficlets on the Harry Potter universe so it's basically complete as it's just a collection of one-shots and drabbles.  Featuring...EVERYBODY.  Probably angst, some humor, mild romance.
1. Redheads Anonymous, Arthur and Molly

**Redheads Anonymous**

Anyone who ever thought that Molly Prewett and I just met and came together perfectly has obviously A) never met us and B) never met a redhead. Don't understand me? Well, let me illustrate my point.

Now, where to start? Oh yes, how about when we first met?

_We all stood __crowded around the Great Hall doors, our first-year faces all exhibiting some sort of emotion: fear, eagerness, boredom, the whole gamut one can run through when faced with the next seven years of one's life. I was one of the "eagerness" faces. Beyond excited at the prospect of being a full-fledged wizard one day, I made my way to the front, politely (I felt) getting people to move aside. I guess it kind of helped that I was almost two inches taller than the majority of the other kids._

_And then suddenly my progress was completely stopped. More than stopped actually. I'd gently just nudged a girl near the front aside so that I was in front, so I could be one of the first kids to see the students and professors of Hogwarts, when I found myself flying back, my arms and legs flailing for purchase and then landing rather hard on my bum with my chest feeling like it'd just been jabbed hard with a small pole. My head was spinning._

"_Whaddya think you're doing, beanpole?" a sharp and annoyed voice cut through my confusion. Looking up, I was confronted with narrowed brown eyes and hair as ginger as mine. She just glared and huffed at me, and turned just in time to face the doors as they were opened. And that was how I was introduced to Hogwarts. On my arse._

Then there was that day when I first realized that she was more than the daughter of my mom's best friend. And she caught me—mid realization.

_I couldn't seem to stop myself staring. What did she _do _to herself over the summer? I'd heard that her family had gone overseas for a continental vacation and I don't know what they fed her or what exactly they'd done, but the end result was that Molly was looking kind of foxy._

_Everyone__ in the House was hanging out in the Common Room and she'd just come down in what I guess she considered her pyjamas__—__a tank top and shorts. My eyes had instantly gone for her legs, like a magnet to metal. They'd looked long and shapely and a tan color that red-haired people didn't usually get but envied all the same. _

_We'd become sort of friends after being sorted into Gryffindor and having to work together in various classes but I'd never actually even considered Molly to be a girl__—__well, of course, a "girl" but not technically a girl that I could ever see myself dating or kissing. But those type of thoughts were definitely entering my mind now._

_I let my ogling __eyes wander up her legs, past her small waist and those female parts of the body that were a source of endless fascination for the male population, and met the burning stare of one Molly Prewett. And it wasn't a burning with passion stare, nope, it was burning with anger. _

_Blimey. You can't call me a coward for running away from that look. It definitely kills._

Or how about this one: when she asked me out in our fifth year…and I said "no" and she'd run off in tears.

Whoa! Stop right there! I think I've been duly punished for this one.

"_ARTHUR WEASLEY, YOU BLITHERING IDIOT SON OF YOUR FATHER! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU, OF ALL MY CHILDREN, HAVE BEHAVED __abominably__! MAGGIE JUST TOLD ME THAT YOU ACTED HORRIFICALLY TOWARDS HER PRECIOUS DAUGHTER! FIRST YOU TORTURE AND TEASE HER AND COMPARE HER TO THE WIDE-END OF A BLAST-ENDED SKREWT THEN PUSH HER INTO THE LAKE? WHERE HAVE YOUR SENSES GONE?"_

_At that last bit, I was __startled enough to peek my head up from under the table where I'd dived as soon as I recognized the Howler coming my way. I hadn't done that!_

"_YOU APOLOGIZE TO THAT GIRL THIS INSTANT! I DID NOT RAISE YOU THAT WAY AND IF I DO NOT HEAR OF YOU MAKING IT UP TO HER IN YOUR NEXT LETTER…"_

_And with that ominous ending, the red envelope caught up in flame and I stared at it, in wide-eyed fear. I could hear the rest of my table starting to crack up at the whole scene but I felt shell-shocked about the whole thing, my body caught in an uncomfortable position under the table. A movement at the corner of my eye was enough to shake me out of it. I didn't actually know why until I'd turned to fully take in the threat, er, threats coming my way. I caught Molly's smug look but was distracted. Because Molly's older brothers were headed toward me and they didn't look happy at all._

I don't even know why I'd said "no" other than the fact that I'd really, really, _really _liked Molly for awhile and I didn't want to ruin our friendship by turning it into something else and then neither friendship or romance surviving. 'Sides, even when I did want to apologize, I wasn't capable of even speaking properly for months after her brothers were through with me.

And then it took me a whole other year to get her to chill out towards me enough for her to even listen to me. Then it took me some groveling and some pestering and then some more groveling and she finally said yes to me dating her.

If you think then at _that _point we stopped fighting, boy, you _completely _don't know us ginger-haired folk.

Sure, now that we were over the boy-likes-girl-but-she-doesn't-know-it-and-she-likes-him-too-but-isn't-saying-it stage, the firefights were infrequent but still very present. For instance: now.

We'd been eating supper in the Great Hall when she had gotten upset over some little thing—okay, maybe me forgetting her birthday wasn't technically "little"—and was going on about how I obviously didn't care for her and she didn't know why we were together and had just left the table.

I watched as she stormed out, her long auburn hair swinging irately behind her and felt angry for her being angry. I stood up and went after her, unthinkingly yelling the first words that came to my mouth. "Molly, you stubborn—of course, I care about you! I bloody love you!"

All sound seemed to cease in the Great Hall, students stopped chatting, teachers stopped eating and Molly stopped walking. She whipped around and I took a small step back, feeling a little afraid of what I saw in her face as she moved quickly back to where I was standing. She looked mad, but not. I wasn't actually too sure what her expression was. Then surprisingly her lips were on mine and she was wrapping herself around me, snogging me senseless in front of the whole of Hogwarts.

So, in addition to being quite bullheaded and argumentative, we redheads are also rather passionate. In a very good way.


	2. Pull The Wool Down Again, Colin Creevy

**Pull The Wool Down Again**

Can you imagine what it felt like to be Petrified for months on end? Some people say that you don't actually feel anything, that all you remember is the moment just before you were Petrified and then the moment after you get the antidote. Well, I think they lie.

Oh, I certainly remember seeing the flash of those eyes, the eyes of the basilisk and I remember the sudden horror of realizing that I may die and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I couldn't move, not one inch of me, not even my pinky toe. I'd never experienced something like this before: having something happen to me that was completely out of my control.

Do you know what my life was like before the basilisk? Innocent. Completely innocent. I had lived the regular life of a child of Britain until I'd turned eleven when my family received a visit from a woman named Minerva McGonagall and I learned that I was a wizard.

Rather than my parents throwing me out of the house for being different or swallowing their disappointment that I wouldn't become the doctor they so wanted me to be, they accepted me for who I was. In fact, the visit and explanation of the wizarding world came as sort of a relief to them. It at least explained the strange things that happened to me, and actually Dennis too while we were growing up.

There was the one time when I'd fallen out of a tree and possibly broken a few bones if I hadn't floated down to the ground. Or the time when all the shoelaces of the kids in Dennis' preschool class had been tied together inexplicably. Or even the time when the vegetables at the dinner table kept disappearing, apparently because both Dennis and I hated cauliflower.

I came to Hogwarts bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. After my visit to Diagon's Alley to get my school supplies, I had read anything I could get my hands on to learn more about this world that I was to be a part of. That's when I learned about Albus Dumbledore, the Chudley Cannons and, the most exciting person in my mind, Harry Potter.

The Boy-Who-Lived and defeater of the Dark Wizard, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was because of him that people like me, Muggleborns I'd learned, could attend wizard schools and realize our full heritage. And I was going to go to school with him!

Imagine the excitement I felt. A son of a milkman suddenly rubbing elbows with the like of world saviors. There wasn't anything that could dim my shining enthusiasm now. I'd taken along my new camera and snapped off as many shots as I could of the boy and his friends. I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd realized I was annoying him but I thought he didn't really care.

I loved everything about Hogwarts, from the Great Hall, to my classes and professors and even on down to Filch and his cat. I know. That's a bit strange of me, but you have to realize, once you've resigned yourself to a normal life, to suddenly realize that you're something _more_, well, that's something to savor in each respect.

At least that's what I thought until I met the basilisk.

In those months that I was Petrified, unable to move, unable to do anything, I realized that there is evil in the world. Evil that sometimes cannot be fought and that one may never be able to actually do anything about. I saw that my world wasn't just about Chocolate Frogs and famous wizards; _Lumos _and Firebolts. But that it included creatures like the basilisk, people like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

So when I had the antidote given to me by Madame Pomfrey, I woke up and it was the end of my innocence. But how I wished I could pull the wool over my eyes again.


	3. Bella Black

**Bella Black**

_Written for HPFF Collaboration "Phoenix in the Ashes. In the cycles of our lives there are moments of great meaning, that close the circle between endings and beginnings. This is the story of Bella Black._

*.*

I, Bella Black, fell in love with a Muggleborn. It was a strange feeling because I'd never been in love nor did I ever dream that I would be in love with someone who is innately inferior to me. Or so I was taught.

But when I looked at Maxwell, when I saw his blue eyes sparkle at me and the easy grin he gave me, I couldn't deny that there was something about him that was _more_, something that didn't make him less than me or better, just _different_. A good different.

I can't even say when it started for me. My family is pure and known for being pure. I have grown up knowing that my blood status is precious and something to cultivate and keep so. In fact, I've been betrothed to Rodolphus Lestrange since I was in the cradle, a precaution, I'm sure, that my parents thought of in case such an unfortunate emotion such as "love" ever entered into the picture.

Like it did.

There's a class that Slytherins share with Hufflepuff—Transfiguration. All year I'd been watching Maxwell Temple, hearing his deep voice, his laughing ways and I'd felt myself soften up, felt myself turn into one of those gooey giggly twits who slobber over the newest heartthrob in _Witch Weekly_. And I have been quietly horrified by myself.

A _Muggleborn_.

I couldn't even tell my sister about this. She natters on and on about Lucius this and Lucius that and I had nothing to share. It's not like I could start chattering about Rod all of a sudden. She knows that I'm only going to marry him because Father wants me to.

My friendship with Maxwell started out when we had to be paired up in class to transfigure matchbooks into glass bowls. I'd gotten the hang of the assignment rather quickly while Maxwell—not so much. His self-deprecating humor and that quick smile warmed me and I hated it. I treated him callously and cruelly and yet, he maintained his good nature and treated me with respect and as a friend. I couldn't believe it.

As the year went on, we continued to be paired up and work together. In class, surrounded by my fellow Slytherins and the watchful eyes of the teacher, I continued to act how "Bellatrix Black" would act. But then, after class, on homework assignments, we'd sneak off to the more abandoned hallways of Hogwarts to figure out the work and to just talk and laugh and enjoy each others' company.

I found myself craving these moments. He treated me like _Bella_, a girl, not someone part of the "Great Black Family". It was novel and exciting and I felt like a rebel. Was this why Sirius was always getting into trouble?

I was in love and the ideals I had grown up with were changing.

And I probably would've turned out to be a very good person. If only Maxwell hadn't gone and messed things up.

There was a night when I thought my life would change, when I thought I would be happy but which turned out to be one of the worst nights of my life.

We were going to finish up the last bit of an assignment we had from McGonagall and were supposed to meet up after class. He didn't show up at our usual spot beneath the portrait of drunk ladies so I wandered over to the corridor I knew had the Hufflepuff Common Room entrance.

And I found my Maxwell in the arms of another girl. A pretty blonde thing that I'd only noticed once the entire year. And he was kissing her. Like I had dreamed of him kissing me.

I felt that love, that adoration I had for this boy burst into flames, could feel the ashes seeping into my lungs and turning everything black. I felt hot and angry and vengeful. I didn't do anything then, no, but I made sure that he suffered the rest of the year and that girl, that pretty girl, too. His unhappy face, his random scars and bruises; her sad eyes; all of it, I relished. And they never knew why.

I, Bella Black, _hate_ Mudbloods and half-bloods and all that they represent. Scum and filth, they are. Scum and filth.


	4. Dichotomy, Severus and Lily

**Dichotomy**

Though the unlit night was my domain, I favored the sun, burning so brightly in the sky. Her auburn hair, my heart's secret delight, the smile she bestowed was my light. Inescapable was the hold she had over me for I would never break those bonds; there was freedom within her embrace.

At what moment did I realize that she would be my all, my everything? Was it when I first met her in a park, her sister barely registered upon my consciousness for _her_glow outshone all? I was too young to know about eternal love and the unburnished joy and pain of it all.

No, I recall the exact moment, the exact time.

It was a holiday in our fourth year. She'd convinced me to play with her in the park, push her up and up on that swing set. Higher and higher she would fly. She teased me at my hesitation in helping her reach the ether. I played it off as nothing.

But it wasn't.

I'd hesitated because I did not want to have her taken from me by capricious angels who chanced to look down upon her laughing face and realize that they'd forgotten one of their own. I'd never believed in a higher being until I'd met her. For surely, Someone must have formed those beautiful green eyes and that lovely soul with His own hands.

She'd seem to sense my concern and had slowly let herself drift back down, her swing losing momentum until she finally stopped, her face looking up at mine. She didn't say anything, just looked at me with that clear-eyed gaze I could feel down to my toes. Then she smiled, a breathtaking smile, one that I had never seen before in all my years of being by her side. Her hand came up to touch my face and traced the curve of my face, leaving a mark that I thought all would be able to see.

That smile had settled to a gentle grin and my name fell from her lips, hidden amusement in her tone. Shaking her head, she'd laughed and grabbed my hand, making me run with her across the open field and into the woods, down to our secret place beneath the oaks and elms. She stopped and laid on her back, not even looking at me as she'd patted the empty space next to her. Laying next to her, I felt this unfamiliar warmth in my middle, and as she made her way under my arm to rest against me, that warmth grew into an encompassing aura around us, making me feel at peace as only being with her could do.

But silly me for thinking that light could live with dark, that day would conquer night. The never-ending circle that ruled the earth, also held me in its might. The push and pull of power and love, the heated words and callous actions, held enough sway to sunder the chain that linked us.

**Author's Note:**

**I've been wanting to write a Snape/Lily story for a while. I'm doing a challenge where I need to write in just 500 words so decided that writing a succinct Snape was good enough. Please let me know what you think! (press below)**


	5. A Death Eater's Initiation

**A Death Eater's Initiation**

Sometimes it's just one thing that can change a person's life.

If you haven't experienced it, you've at least seen it; in the lives of those around you, in books, in the serial life of a TV character or in the short span of a movie. It could be a glance across a crowded room, turning left on a street instead of right or the first wail of your newly born child. It's different for everyone.

For me, it was having the Dark Mark carved into my arm.

I'd been driven by duty to my Pureblood lineage; by fear of my father's wrath if I did not do as I was expected; my wish to not see sadness and disappointment in my mother's eyes; all of this drove me to take this permanent scar, to be forever branded as a Death Eater, a slave to my Master's wishes.

I felt I had no choice. I felt that my life had been leading to this moment which found me kneeling in front of the most powerful Dark wizard of the age, his pitiless eyes looking down upon me. The gaze seared me, stripped me down to the core and found me utterly lacking. The disdain seeped from the edges of his black cloak, slithered across the floor and wound its way up from my aching knees and tightened around my throat, making speech impossible for me.

"You are scared." The statement isn't a question and it came out on a hiss.

There is no right answer for this.

"No, Master." My voice pitched low, a false hope that he would interpret it to what he wanted to hear.

He chuckled, his laughter filled not with mirth but with a jagged edge that cut straight into anyone who heard it. "This boy thinks that he's a friend of filthy _Muggles_!" He continued to laugh and the others in the room join in, even if they don't think it's funny.

Images of summers spent with the other kids' in my neighborhood, muggle friends I'd watched movies with, played in the streams with, had fun with, flash before my eyes as they are ripped from me to be thrown at in front of the others and mocked.

I heard my mother's sob behind me; my father's harsh word to shut her up.

They will die if I do not do this.

I flung myself before the Dark Lord. "My lord! I swear fealty only to you! I would have you purge the impurities of these muggles from me!"

I held my arm out in offering, the sleeve pulled back, revealing smooth, unmarked skin. His eyes flashed – in anger or with satisfaction, I didn't know.

His wand came up and I flinched, trying desperately to hide it, but still his sharp eyes caught it.

"This cancer will need to be burned out." The tip glowed and a black stream issued forth, touching my skin, burying bone deep into my arm.

I am set on fire.


End file.
